Church hurt is something that has become a popular conversation of an unpopular topic. The sad reality is, it’s not only church hurt that is keeping so many millennials and older folk from not being connected to a church. Do you ‘carest’ not the number of people who are longing to be in fellowship with God yet they will not set foot in the church? Do you ‘carest’ not the magnitude of young people dying without giving their life to Christ because momma didn’t know Jesus either? Do you ‘carest’ not the many who are being led astray by the Facebook Live preachers and prophets? Sure, we open the doors of the church at the funeral of a young person when we know most of them aren’t coming back on Sunday. How many times have you reached out to them, afterwards? How many meetings have you held to ask them their thoughts? And how many times have you taken action and not just notes? Look, I don’t mean to be the bearer of this heavy news but the same church you did back in 1992, isn’t sufficient in 2018. Hear me well! I didn’t say God or His word isn’t the same but if you are standing before a congregation of people, reading from the King James Version and the majority of them cannot understand it; there is a problem.
If all you do is condemn folk based on what they are wearing, there is a problem. If you consistently chastise the younger men for their tattoos, while yours are covered up and faded; there is a problem. If you berate the young women for the children they’ve had out-of-wedlock, when most of yours are too, there is a problem. If your sermons solely consist of homosexuality, brimstone and fire; there is a problem. Let’s face it, you got away with a lot of stuff back in the day because social media wasn’t as popular as it is now. Because baby, if we saw some of the videos from the ‘Freaknik’ in Atlanta, Martin Luther King Jr. Park on Sunday or the drive-in movie theater; some of those demons you’ve since hidden would be public. Yes, I get it; you’ve turned over a new leaf, you’re walking in line with the word of God and you’re for real saved but don’t you remember when you weren’t? Do you not remember grandma’s prayers that saved you those nights you stood on the streets dealing drugs or bed hopped? Do you not remember those times you walked the streets out your mind and somebody prayed your healing? Do you not remember the times your marriage was on the verge of ending and someone prayed for your tail to go home? Do you not remember the depression, the cheating, the alcohol and the drugs? Do you not remember the times you stole and lied? Do you not remember praying for forgiveness a few minutes ago? All I am saying is, we have to offer God to folk, by any means necessary because I’d rather have Him and not need Him than to need Him and not have Him. Offer God and not your cash app name for a seed. Offer Jesus instead of your cute flyer. Offer them God and not your opinions.
Lakisha, the Author 